Stephen Michael Jepson was born May 31, 1941, in Sioux City, Iowa. After receiving his MFA from Alfred University in 1971, he went on to open his studio in Geneva, Florida, and began the ceramics department at the University of Central Florida, where he taught for eight years. In 1976, Jepson jar with lid was selected to be included in the Smithsonian Museum Collection of American Crafts. [1] In 1978, Jepson was profiled in The Professional Potter [2] by Thomas Shafer. In 1993, he founded the video production company, Thoughtful Productions. His instructional videos are intended to teach intermediate and beginner potters how to improve their technique. In 1997, Jepson founded The World Pottery Institute in Geneva, Florida, a school for potters. While Jepson continues to teach pottery, he is now retired and has dedicated himself to athletic inventions. [3]
In 1993, Stephen Jepson founded the video production company, Thoughtful Productions, to produce instructional videos about making pottery.
Jepson created the World Pottery Institute in 1997. Located in Geneva, Florida, The World Pottery Institute is a school for potters ranging from beginners to professionals.[ citation needed ]
Jepson created, and maintains the website http://neverleavetheplayground.com, which has a mission statement of:
"My Never Leave The Playground© is a program of activities that stimulates the growth of the brain and body by specific training of the hands and feet. My method has two main goals: to promote good health and to have fun.
People believe exercise is strenuous but my method is neither arduous nor boring. Instead, I focus on movements and games, many similar to those children play on the playground. I begin with simple movements, which progress to more complex challenges for the brain and body. For example, I train left and right, hands and feet, to manipulate large and small objects with increasing precision. The movements I teach promote balance and dexterity which prevent falls and increase eye–hand coordination. The activities in the method develop the large and small muscle groups and foster stability and physical coordination.
Every cell in the body is affected by movement. The brain improves as we use our muscles, which, in turn grow, with use. Scientific studies show that physical movement is the single most important thing to do to be physically healthier and smarter, regardless of age. Movement training can prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's and dementia. Neural pathways open and increase throughout our lives as we learn new activities." [4]
Bernard Howell Leach, was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery".
George Edgar Ohr was an American ceramic artist and the self-proclaimed "Mad Potter of Biloxi" in Mississippi. In recognition of his innovative experimentation with modern clay forms from 1880 to 1910, some consider him a precursor to the American Abstract-Expressionism movement.
Daniel Rhodes was an American artist, known as a ceramic artist, muralist, sculptor, author and educator. During his 25 years (1947–1973) on the faculty at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, in Alfred, New York, he built an international reputation as a potter, sculptor and authority on studio pottery.
Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves. Studio pottery includes functional wares such as tableware and cookware, and non-functional wares such as sculpture, with vases and bowls covering the middle ground, often being used only for display. Studio potters can be referred to as ceramic artists, ceramists, ceramicists or as an artist who uses clay as a medium.
Dame Lucie Rie, was an Austrian-born British studio potter.
Otto Heino and Vivika Heino were artists working in ceramics. They collaborated as a husband-and-wife team for thirty-five years, signing their pots Vivika + Otto, regardless of who actually made them.
Edwin Scheier was an American artist, best known for his ceramic works with his wife, Mary Scheier.
Regis Brodie is a tenured Professor of Art at the Department of Art and Art History at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY and a potter. Since 1972, he has been serving as the Director of the Summer Six Art Program at Skidmore College. He also wrote a book called The Energy Efficient Potter which was published by Watson-Guptill Publications in 1982. He started the Brodie Company in 1999 in the interest of developing tools which would aid the potter at the potter's wheel.
Talavera pottery is a Mexican and Spanish pottery tradition from Talavera de la Reina, in Spain. On 2019, it was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Art pottery is a term for pottery with artistic aspirations, made in relatively small quantities, mostly between about 1870 and 1930. Typically, sets of the usual tableware items are excluded from the term; instead the objects produced are mostly decorative vessels such as vases, jugs, bowls and the like which are sold singly. The term originated in the later 19th century, and is usually used only for pottery produced from that period onwards. It tends to be used for ceramics produced in factory conditions, but in relatively small quantities, using skilled workers, with at the least close supervision by a designer or some sort of artistic director. Studio pottery is a step up, supposed to be produced in even smaller quantities, with the hands-on participation of an artist-potter, who often performs all or most of the production stages. But the use of both terms can be elastic. Ceramic art is often a much wider term, covering all pottery that comes within the scope of art history, but "ceramic artist" is often used for hands-on artist potters in studio pottery.
Virgil Ortiz is a Pueblo artist, known for his pottery and fashion design from Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico. Ortiz makes a variety of pottery, including traditional Cochiti figurative pottery, experimental figurative pottery, traditional pottery vessels. His clothing and jewelry designs are influenced by traditional Native American pattern and aesthetics. He is best known for his edgy pottery figures, his contemporary take on the traditional Cochiti pottery figures (monos) from the late 1800s.
Joyce Scott FRSASA 'is an Australian artist working in drawing, oil painting and ceramics.' 'She has held ten independent exhibitions, is represented internationally and has received five awards.' 'Scott, née Mottershead, was born in Poynton, Cheshire, England in 1938 and migrated with her family to Adelaide, South Australia in 1951.'
James Greig (1936–1986) was a New Zealand potter.
Deichmann pottery was studio pottery produced by Kjeld and Erica Deichmann in New Brunswick, Canada from 1935 to 1963. Until 1956 their studio was located in rural Moss Glen on the Kingston Peninsula near Saint John, New Brunswick. In 1956 it was moved to Sussex, New Brunswick, where it operated until Kjeld Deichmann's death in 1963. The Deichmanns were Canada's first studio potters.
Garth Clark is an art critic, art historian, curator, gallerist, and art dealer from Pretoria, South Africa.
Robert Lockhart Hobson CB was a British civil servant and antiquarian. He was keeper of the Department of Ceramics and Ethnography at the British Museum and an authority on Far Eastern ceramics. He was noted for his cataloguing which The Times described as establishing firm facts for what had previously been "surmise and unproved tradition" and he was highly influential through his writing in the elevation of Chinese ceramics from craft works to the status of objects of fine art. He was president of the Oriental Ceramic Society from 1939 to 1942.
John Walker Wick was an American ceramicist. Though open to artistic experimentation, Glick was most influenced by the styles and aesthetics of Asian pottery—an inspiration that shows in his use of decorative patterns and glaze choices. His experience working with ceramics led him to publish several articles about the craft. In addition to producing pottery, Glick began making "landscape oriented" wall panels during the latter part of his career. Known as "the people's potter," he is primarily remembered for his contributions to art and the field of ceramics.
Chris Gustin is an American ceramicist. Gustin models his work on the human form, which is shown through the shape, color, and size of the pieces.
Denise Wren was an Australian-born British studio potter and craftsperson. Wren was one of the first female studio potters in Britain. She studied and taught with the Kingston School of Art, Knox Guild and Camberwell College of Arts. Wren and her family subsequently set up the Oxshott Pottery and wrote on the subjects of ceramics, textiles and making.
Neil Macalister Grant is a New Zealand potter.